Ryoukoís orders seemed to echo throughout the bridge as Aeka watched
the main viewscreen and observed the events unfolding outside. The cables
from Ryo-Ohkiís docking bay had latched on to the strut that connected
the port-side engine to the slender main body of the dull green Galaxy
Police cruiser. Once the cabbit had a firm grip on the drifting starship,
it could maneuver the other vehicle around and position it so that it
could connect with the smaller starshipís airlock and transfer the two
detectives over. The moment everyone was on board, Ryo-Ohki would head
to the nearby planet and drop the police off so that they could begin
procedures to recover their starship.

It was the third dead Galaxy Police vessel they had come across in the
last ten hours. The first one they had stumbled upon was drifting above
the recreation planet Fantasia IX, a planet she and Ryouko had visited
to look for Tenchi. Of course, they were obligated to assist the helpless
spaceship, although Ryouko had to put up at least a token protest about
going out of her way to help the Galaxy Police. To Ryoukoís credit, it
had taken little in the way of cajoling to get her to agree to the rescue.

That one had gone easily enough. When Aeka inquired as to what happened,
Detective Second Class Psicolpe had told her that he wasnít sure. He had
received a Priority Alpha One emergency transmission from headquarters.
Within moments after receiving it, the power began to fluctuate on the
ship. By the time he realized what was happening, the whole thing had
shut down and he was left to drift alone in space, completely powerless.
He had been working on trying to recover power when Ryo-Ohki stumbled
on him in space.

After they safely delivered him to the planetís surface, they took off
once more, only to be confronted with the exact same situation upon entering
the next system in their search. Upon discovering yet a second Galaxy
Police starship in a similar predicament, Aeka and Ryouko became truly
frightened. After all, their beloved Tenchi (and Mihoshi, for that matter)
was on a Galaxy Police starship, and if what had happened to these two
had happened to her ship as wellÖ

They had hurried and deposited the second officer on the closest civilized
planet they could find. By the time they made planetfall, transmissions
began coming in that contact had been lost with Galaxy Police headquarters,
nor could anyone seem to contact any of their spaceships. Even ground-based
facilitiesí systems had lost power. It seemed as though the entire Galaxy
Police force had been rendered powerless, literally.

While Aeka and Ryouko waited for more reports to come in, seeing if there
were any about Tenchi, they were informed that there had been another
Galaxy Police ship in orbit around one of the planetís moons, and no one
had been able to contact it since. Since there was a lack of vehicles
that could perform the necessary rescue, they asked if Ďthe Royal Princess
would be so kind as to help save that poor stranded policeman before he
ran out of air or his ship crashed into the moon?í

It was a harder task than it sounded. Every moment they spent (Aeka refused
to call the moments wasted) rescuing others was another moment Tenchi
might have been in terrible danger. Surely the same fate that had befallen
the other police ships had also happened to Mihoshiís. At that very second
Tenchi could have been plummeting into a star, or dying from lack of oxygen,
or something even worse. But at the same time neither of them could just
leave a man to die in space. Besides their own consciences, Tenchi would
never have forgiven them if he learned that they had allowed someone to
die just so he could be rescued.

Much to Aekaís surprise, it was Ryouko who tried to reassure her that
Tenchi was probably all right and that they shouldnít worry needlessly.
It was a touching gesture on her part, but even Aeka could see that it
was also something Ryouko had said to reassure herself as well. It even
helped, a little.

Every moment seemed an eternity as the police ship was slowly rotated
into its proper position. It was taking too long. Somewhere, out there,
Tenchi was waiting for them. His life was depending on it. She was certain.

Chapter 5

All comments and criticisms appreciated. You can contact me at sommer@3rdm.net

Yeesh. This thing is getting bigger than even I thought it would.

The world had been turned upside down.

No. That couldnít be right. A spaceship could be turned upside down,
but not an entire world. It had to be something else. Something that actually
made sense. What could it be? Maybe if he tried concentrating.

There were mental exercises he had been taught to focus his mind, concentrating
on an imaginary point of light in a field of darkness and drawing it closer
to himself at a steady, yet constant, pace. Using that method had enabled
him to harness and control his innate power. He no longer needed to use
the mental exercise for that, but the method was still within him. The
field of darkness was easy, the light almost as much. By the time he had
drawn it close to him, he was ready to open his eyes and embrace the world
once more.

Where confusion had once held sway, now there was peace. Everything made
sense now, assuming there was sense in the universe to begin with. The
world only appeared upside down because Saíbre Stargrave himself was upside
down. And that was because his ship was upside down as well. He could
tell from the shattered remains of the bridge around him that appeared
just as upright as he. It was an illusion. Gravity told a different tale.

The portion of the world that had seemed to be upside down was that which
could be seen outside the hole that now dominated the port side of what
had once been the bridge. Stargraveís face had been pointed in that direction
when consciousness had returned. Sunlight streamed in from the hole. That
was for the best since there wasnít even enough reserve power for the
emergency lights. And under the circumstances, being upside down with
a big hole in your forward bridge was preferable to hanging upside down
in pitch darkness.

Fresh air, with the scent of jasmine and a hint of willow, blew in a
gust from the hole. That solved the question as to whether the planet
they had landed on had a habitable atmosphere, as the starcharts had suggested.
It seemed to be supporting life as well, if the grass that could be seen
from the hole was any indication. Two things were going for it. Now it
was time for the third: to see if it had allowed them to have a landing
they could walk away from.

His comprehension of the situation had taken less then three seconds.
As he turned his attention from the outside, he realized that he had been
too focused on discovering the reason of why the world had seemed upside
down. With all of his concentration on that one fact, he hadnít realized
that there was a woman locked in a death grip with his safety restraint,
and that his arms were around her as well. Ariana, he remembered. He had
grabbed onto her during the turbulence, and she in turn had held onto
him. Even the crash had not been enough to break their embrace.

"Are you all right?" Ariana asked while still upside down,
keeping her hold on the restraint. Due to both her own physiology and
extensive physical training, she could have remained in that position
for another twenty minutes before fatigue set in.

"Time to get down," Stargrave told her as an answer to her
question. She nodded in agreement. As he loosened his hold in her, she
tucked her legs up and curled into a ball. Then she extended them, spinning
so that she was now turned right side up and fell the ten feet to the
bottom of what was once a ceiling not more than five minutes ago. The
maneuver was simple for her as she landed gracefully on her feet, tensed
and ready for action the moment she touched the ground.

A few meters behind the captainís chair a similar scene occurred as Onita
released his hold on Funuyaki. She too touched down easily enough, though
she lacked the smooth grace that Ariana had possessed in her own landing.

Ariana held her hands high as Stargrave loosened his restraint. Unlike
her, he halfway fell until Ariana caught him. Only a little bit of air
escaped from her lungs despite the eighty-pound weight advantage he had
on her. She set him down as gently as a cat would a newborn kitten and
looked him over with an equal amount of concern.

"Iím all right," Stargrave assured her as he took a moment
to accurately assess the damage done to his crew and ship.

"Considerable," was the first word that came to his mind. "Complete,"
was the next. He absently catalogued the damage: no power at all, a ten-foot
diameter hole in the bridge and all of the bridge equipment was ruined,
the acrid smell of burned circuitry, and the rear portions of his ship
were missing, assuming the diagnostic he had run before the crash was
accurate. And that was only concerning the mechanical resources that remained.

His living ones did not fare much better. Fera jumped down even more
gracefully from her pilotís seat towards the front. Her copilot, Cheng,
had been less fortunate since he had been on the part of the bridge that
was now a hole. Looking up and to his left, Saíbre saw Onita helping Malgaunt
down from his seat, but Streen was dead. His seat had held firm in the
crash, too bad the sensor panel hadnít. It had been driven up (down now,
actually) and into Streen. His head was still sticking in the broken screen
that had tracked Mihoshiís ship the instant it had entered the system.
Now neither man nor machine worked at all.

There were others too. Slykes was dead, as Stargrave had expected when
the ship had gone out of control in space. Rakham, the gunnery officer,
was lying on the floor too, his back twisted at an impossible angle. Moans
of pain were coming from Joffryís position on the newly christened floor.
A closer look showed a blackened bone sticking out of one of his pant
legs. The other was twisted just as badly as Rakhamís back had been. The
color of the bone was normal: Joffry was Ankatackian after all. Their
outward appearance was like that of many bipedal races, but they were
actually a great deal more durable than most with their dense skin and
internal tissues. Anyone else, and their legs would probably have been
torn off. True, he would be next to useless in the future until his legs
were repaired, but with nearly everyone else dead, even the breathing
would serve a useful function.

Angstrom, the science officer/numbers man/assistant cook, was alive and
appeared unharmed, save for a dark bruise at his temple. Yoost, his chief
computer programmer and hacker, was alive and without a mark on him. And
naturally, Malgauntís two assistants just had to be alive and well too.
Sometimes, the unworthy had all the luck.

Forty-two out of forty-seven of his crew were gone. They had been handpicked
by Stargrave himself. The best people at each of their positions in his
organization, all dead now. It would take him months, if not years, to
recover and get people as good, and as relatively trustworthy, as the
ones he had just lost. Years of preparation wasted in a matter of minutes,
with so many deadó

A rectangular piece of metal that had broken off one of the consoles
moved, and a grayish lump in baggy coveralls appeared. It looked the remains
of the bridge over once and said, "Iíve been in worse crashes before."

Forty-one out of forty-seven then. "I should have known youíd survive."
Stargrave addressed Autolycus in a droll voice.

"Of course." Autolycus felt a tinge of disappointment at being
underestimated. "You donít get to live as long as I have without
learning a trick or two on how to survive spaceship crashes."

"A pity most of the crew didnít have your expertise," Malgaunt
said as he finished doing his own examination of the remains of the bridge.
"Weíd better see if there are any other survivors."

"There arenít," Stargrave assured him. Remorse threatened to
overwhelm him looking over the ruins of his ship. "Everything towards
the back, everything that was still attached, lost atmosphere when the
hull was compromised. We need to find out whatís still functioning."

Ariana and Yoost tended to Joffryís shattered legs while Angstrom placed
a couple of larger, and more solid-looking, pieces of debris on top of
one another directly under the communications console. He balanced himself
carefully, wobbling several times before finding a good spot to balance
himself on, and began dismantling one of the panels attached to the base
of the console.

"What are you doing?" Stargrave asked.

A panel came away in Angstromís hands. "There are a couple of reserve
sets of communication equipment stored under here. Smaller rigs. ARR-80ís
if I remember correctly. Slykes kept them here just in case the primary
set went down and we needed backup fast. Also, a lot of the parts are
compatible with the main console, and we could cannibalize the smaller
units to repair the main one."

"They have an independent power supply?" Stargrave asked.

"Yes." Angstrom struggled to pull a rectangular black case
from out of the niche in the console. It came free with a pop, a trail
of wires playing out from a hole in the back of the case. "So much
for this one."

Angstrom tossed the case aside and repeated the process on a second panel.
This time he was rewarded with an intact unit. A quick check showed that
it was still in working order. "As it stands, this thing can send
a signal up to three systems away. But I think I can boost the signal
by jury-rigging it to the remains of the primary unit."

"Do it," Stargrave ordered. Now that they had a chance of communicating
outside of the system. That meant they wouldnít be stranded in the middle
of nowhere for an eternity. With that newfound hope, Stargrave began taking
control of the situation. "Weíre going to keep looking for salvageable
equipment. I want everything we can possibly use found. Weapons. Food.
Something to make a shelter out of. ImportaÖ"

Everyone watched as Stargraveís face grew pale and his lower lip began
trembling. He appeared to age ten years in a matter of heartbeats.

Ariana was the first to react. "Whatísó"

"The Shihana!" Stargrave rushed out of the hole in the bridge.
Sunlight washed over him. He was temporarily blinded by the glare of the
twin suns high in the sky, but he refused to let that stop him as he staggered
towards the rear of the ship and looked around in desperation. The area
they had landed on was rocky, with tall gray stones that seemed to stick
out at semi-regular intervals next to the ship. Saíbreís breathing was
ragged, despite what little physical exertion running outside required.
He maneuvered around two stones that stood as tall as him before he arrived
at the section of the ship he wanted.

It was only once he was outside that the damage to the Rack NíRuin could
truly be appreciated. Over half of the ship was missing, and what remained
of it might as well not have been there either. Numerous holes, some the
size of a quarter to others five feet wide, riddled the hull where pieces
of debris from the dreadnought had struck. Scorch marks covered the length
of the ship from the burning reentry it had just undergone. And large
strips of wood were peeled back, as though a carpenter had come and tried
to whittle the starship down to a toothpick.

But none of that mattered to Stargrave. The only thing he cared about
was his Shihana and the special container it had been in. It took him
a moment to piece together what was left of the ship and figure out where
the cylinder should have been. He scanned the top of the upside down vessel,
desperately trying to find the attachment.

Eventually he found where it should have been. The part of the ship it
had been attached to had not been lost with the rest of the vessel. However,
all that remained of the cylinder were four small metal struts, twisted
and blackened, signifying where the container with the Shihana had been.

"NOOO!" Stargrave fell to his knees and wailed to the skies
above. "Itís gone! Itís gone! All of my dreams! Why?! Why?!"

The others had followed Stargrave as quickly as they could when he had
first run outside. Like him, they had been blinded. Unlike him, they waited
until their eyes had adjusted before trying to follow. They caught up
to him quickly, just in time to see him scream in rage at the skies and
curse every deity he could name. Ariana moved to comfort him, but the
moment he was aware of her presence, Saíbre lashed out with a backhand.
Her hand blocked the blow reflexively. Though it had not connected, it
hurt her just as much as if it had.

"It was all for nothing!" Anger was now overriding the hopeless
feeling in his breast. "My dreams are finished! Itís gone! The last
Shihana in the universe isó"

"ó Approximately forty kilometers southeast," Malgaunt said
calmly as he stared at the red and green device that fit squarely in the
palm of his hand.

All eyes turned towards him. Stargrave returned to his feet and took
several slow steps towards Malgaunt, almost afraid that if he approached
too fast, the man would disappear, as though he were nothing more than
a dream. "What do you mean?"

Malgaunt held up the device, displaying it for all to see, but for Stargrave
most of all. "I didnít want to take any chances on our prize becoming
Ďmislocatedí somehow, so I took the precaution of placing a tracking device
on the adamantine shell of the Shihana. Actually, itís placed on the inside
of the keypad locking mechanism. As long as it remains intact, so will
the tracking device. And according to this, our little flower is located
forty kilometers to the southeast. Forty point three, to be more precise."

"How do we know it wasnít destroyed when it hit the planet?"
Onita asked.

"Adamantine is strong enough to withstand orbital reentry,"
Malgaunt informed him. "The Shihana is intact. All we have to do
is recover it."

"First we have to get that transmitter working," Funuyaki corrected.
"Recovering the Shihana wonít mean anything if weíre stranded on
this rock with no way of getting off. Hell, unless someone thought to
tell someone else where we were rendezvousing with Yagdagron, even the
few people in the universe that donít want to blow our heads off wonít
know where to look for us."

Stargrave shook his head. "Myself and Malgaunt were the only ones
who knew we would be in this sector. I didnít inform Captain Yolleth until
after we had landed on the station as to where the rendezvous would take
place. I didnít want to take any chances with leaks on the Yagdagronís
side. She might have informed her fleet where she was after I sent her
the coordinates, but I doubt it. She was running under radio silence so
as to keep anyone from picking up an errant transmission and somehow stumbling
onto us."

"Meaning without that transmitter, we might as well plant the Shihana
ourselves," Funuyaki finished. That was the problem when you were
trying to maintain a high level of secrecy; you never told anyone anything,
and now they were going to pay for it.

With a reluctant nod in Funuyakiís direction, Stargrave found himself
agreeing with her. "Angstrom. Get that transmitter working. As for
the rest of us, weíre going after the Shihana right now."

"Why bother?" Malgaunt said as he began to make his way back
towards the bridge. "Itís not going anywhere. And I want that transmitter
working now. Once itís sending our emergency signal, then we can run off
and get back our prize."

"Iíd feel better with it in hand," Stargrave said.

"If weíre going to make a forty kilometer trek, I want supplies,"
Malgaunt countered. "This planet hasnít been that accurately surveyed.
All we know is it has a breathable atmosphere, no known intelligent life
forms, and no nearby inhabited planets. Thereís no telling what sort of
predators are out there, or if the plant or animal life is safe to eat.
We donít even know what the weatherís like. The Shihana isnít going anywhere
on its own. Weíve got plenty of time to gather supplies together and get
to our flower in good enough shape to bring it back."

That was good enough for Onita and especially Funuyaki. The remaining
members of the Rack Ní Ruin looked towards their captain for what to do
next.

"Very well," Stargrave admitted reluctantly. "Weíll get
the transmitter working, salvage what we can, then set out. Do you have
an extra locator?"

"Yes," Malgaunt said a bit warily.

Stargrave walked up to Malgaunt and held out his hand. "I want one
just in case something happens to the one you have, or something happens
to you."

Under a different set of circumstances, or with someone he trusted less,
Malgaunt would never have done it. But the stakes were too high not to
take risks. He and Stargrave still needed each other, and he trusted the
pirate as much as he could anyone, so he gave him the extra locator. It
went into the pocket of Stargraveís purple outfit in an instant.

Stargrave rested his hand on Malgauntís shoulder. "We still have
a chance to win the grand prize. My thanks, my friend."

"And to you," Malgaunt returned the gesture.

Off to the side, Funuyakiís eyes narrowed slightly. For a moment there,
when she thought that Shihana had been destroyed, she held onto the hope
that she had at last been cut free of the whole disastrous situation.
Without the planet killer, their whole misbegotten mission would have
been at an end and she might have been able to salvage something of her
own from the situation. But no longer. Once again, the chain on her neck
was pulled, reminding her of whom she still answered to, and that she
was once more brought back into the folds of the most dangerous of games.

"I wonder what happened to that Galaxy Police officer," Autolycus
said as the party made its way back to the bridge to begin salvaging the
wreck.

"Sheís dead. Her ship was completely gutted and was leaking radiation.
Even if it somehow made it to the planet instead of exploding in deep
space, her ship probably broke up in the atmosphere," Ariana said.
"And even if it didnít, she wouldnít have survived planetfall."

"We did," Fera reminded her.

The thoughts were scrambled, a chaotic jumble of clashing images and
sounds that whirled through the mind at an incomprehensible pace. Only
forever and only for a moment the pandemonium lasted, then, through the
cacophony, a sort of pattern began to form. A thing that resembled coherence.

[You were thinking about something,] a little voice said at the back
of a mind.

Yes, that was right, he had been thinking of something. What was it?

The thoughts came closer together, revealing themselves from the mist.
[You were evaluating your life. People tend to do that when confronted
with almost certain death situations. Although I think it was actually
a first for you, in spite of the numerous times your life has been in
mortal danger.]

Right. That was it. His life had flashed right before his eyes. His mother
had been there. So had his father, and his little cat that had died a
while back. All of the later people that had recently entered his life
had introduced themselves towards the end as well. Sasami, Aeka, Ryouko,
Mihoshi, Washuu, even Ryo-Ohki. And carrots. There were lots of carrots.
He was starting to hate carrots. Working in the fields was hard on his
back, and he had never been wild about the vegetable in the first place.
Anymore now it had seemed that was all he did was hoe and till, and till
and hoe, andó

[Youíre getting off track there, boy. Bring it back in.]

Right. He hadnít dwelled that long on the carrots in the flashback anyhow.
There had been bad guys too. Dr. Clay. Kagato. That odd couple of guys
that had wanted to lock him up on a spaceship and send him really crappy
movies. What were their names again? Dr. Forest and Francis? Frunk? Frenk?

[Forget them. They were a couple of twits anyway. There was actually
one, single, important thought in that mostly pointless little review
you went though. Towards the end. Try and remember it.]

What were the last thought that had gone through his mind? Something
about forgetting to pack extra underwear for his trip?

[No.]

Worrying about the ĎBí he was getting in Home Economics?

[No.]

That time he had looked through his fatherís collection of films and
stumbled upon the Ďspecialí one that had starred his mother, father, copious
amounts of whip cream, and leather? That had been a seriously traumatizing
incident. Parents werenít supposed to do THAT sort of thing, or at least
their children werenít supposed to see it.

[NOT THAT EITHER! THINK, MAN! THINK!]

Ah, yes. It was coming back to him now. It was something about being
wishy-washy.

[Yes.]

Something about a choice.

[Yes. Thatís it.]

Something about being wishy-washy and making a choice.

[Yes. Keep going. You almost have it.]

It was about finally making a choice concerning one of the giró

Nope didnít remember it no sir completely lost from the memory forever
and wasnít ever going to come back in any way shape or form so it would
be best just to drop the subject completely and never consider it again
since he was never going to actually think about it and that was that
about that.

[Pussy.]

Shut up.

And, much to Tenchiís relief, he woke up.

"Stupid voice," he muttered to himself. It took a couple of
seconds before full consciousness returned and he was oriented enough
to move. The first thing he did was try to sit up, which he ended up regretting
a moment later. Either he had been hit by something, or something had
hit him, in the head. There was a large bump on the top of his skull,
but no blood. His initial confusion had passed quickly enough to lead
him to conclude that whatever damage he had taken was minor. Perhaps the
blow to the head was what had triggered that strange voice in his mind.
It was silent now, and that was all that really mattered. Once the initial
wave of pain and disorientation passed, Tenchi remembered where he was
and what events had led him to his current predicament. And that there
was one other person also involved.

"Mihoshi." He began looking around the ruins of the bridge.
It was a mess, with computer banks having been ripped from their location,
wires sticking out everywhere, glass from the broken lights above scattered
on the floor, and the material from Mihoshiís normal mess thrown about
into different messes. Even part of the wall next to the rear of the ship
had buckled inward, disgorging torn metal and wiring all about that side
of the room. Mihoshi had to be all right. If anything had happened to
her, when he hadnít been able to help even though he was right there,
he would never forgive himself.

A groan came from somewhere to his left. He looked and saw a pair of
legs, encased in blue pants, sticking straight up from among a pile of
debris. They began wriggling of their own accord, and a soft voice filled
with woe said, "Ohh. It feels like Iíve been in a spaceship crash."

"You have," Tenchi said as he made his way over and helped
Mihoshi out of the pile. He helped her to her feet, and after she confirmed
that the world had stopped spinning for her benefit, they assessed the
damage to their craft even as the crew of the Rack Ní Ruin were doing
at that moment a hundred kilometers away. The assessment was finished
quickly, since little still worked on the entire ship.

After failing to get any but the most basic of systems to work, Mihoshi
gave up. "Iíll try to get Yukinojo back on line. He might be able
to help." It took her a few moments to hook up what little power
remained to get him running again.

The head unit that he used to communicate with the others was in shambles.
The left half of the mechanical face was torn off and a series of wires
hung down like a clump of yellow Spanish moss. One of the ocular units
had fallen out, the eye-like camera hanging like an eyeball with the optical
nerve keeping it from falling to the floor. And a greenish fluid would
occasionally spurt out the side, shooting several feet away. Both Tenchi
and Mihoshi winced at seeing him in such a way.

Static overwhelmed what little Yukinojoís audio program could get out.
It took a while for, "I don*ZKT* feel so *ZKT*ood,"
to come out clear enough for the others to understand.

"You donít look too good, either." It was hard for Mihoshi
to rein in the tears she felt coming to the fore. Yukinojo would want
her to be strong. It was her duty as a Galaxy Police officer to remain
stoic and calm.

"But I canít help myself. WAAAA!"

Tenchi winced as the deluge started, waited until it hit its apex, then
relaxed as it began to subside.

"Do*ZKT* shed tears f*ZKT* me," Yukinojo told
her.

"How bad is it?" Tenchi asked, feeling a surge of depression
threaten to overwhelm him. He had barely known Yukinojo, and he was only
a machine, but he seemed so lifelike that the idea of possibly losing
the computer was affecting him.

"Too dam*ZKT*d to run a *ZKT*ognistic."

Mihoshi sniffled again, then composed herself as best as she could. There
were still some options open to her, but there was something she had to
know first. "Is your main memory core intact?"

"*ZKT*nk so."

"Then I think I can save your primary neural net." She went
over to one of the computer consoles next to the control panel. She hit
a button, but nothing happened. Frustrated, she tried manually opening
a compartment that didnít have a manual lever. Digging her fingers in
as deeply as she could at a corner of the metal cover of the compartment,
she braced her leg against a side and pulled as hard as she could. The
air was filled with the sounds of her gasping and groaning, but the metal
only moved a handful of millimeters, bending slightly rather than giving
way to her pressure. She had paused a moment to catch her breath when
Tenchi moved up beside her. It was a difficult fit, but he managed to
get his fingers under the corner that Mihoshi had pried up slightly. He
mirrored Mihoshi by bracing his leg against the side next to hers. On
the count of three, they pulled together, the metal making an audible
pop as it came free and allowed access to the contents inside the compartment.

Mihoshi pulled out a box with an intricate layer of wires and a variety
of lights on the outside. At the touch of a button, the lights flashed
in a three pulse series of yellow, green, and red. Satisfied, Mihoshi
went back over to the main console, placed the box on the ground, then
rested on her back as she began to unscrew several metal panels on the
bottom of the main console.

"What was that thing?" Tenchi asked.

Mihoshi didnít pause in her work as she answered, "Itís a storage
interface. Once I retrieve all of the circuit boards with Yukinojoís primary
neural net, I can transfer them to this box. We keep these around for
emergencies, like if the ship is nearly destroyed and there isnít enough
power to keep the primary net running. Now heíll be in his shutdown stage
the entire time heís in the box, but heíll be in stasis instead of terminal
shutdown. Itís the only way I have of keeping him alive."

A third panel was removed and Mihoshi gave a tiny clap with her hands.
"That was easy. I can see the circuit boards now. Iím going to pull
them ouOWOWOWOW!"

The sound of a lot of electricity being funneled through a body preceded
the smell of singed Mihoshi in the air. Tenchi lunged into the prone girl,
feeling a brief surge of amperage course through him before Mihoshiís
connection was severed.

A small puff of smoke came from Mihoshiís lips as she sat up and said,
"I donít think that was the right panel."

"Iíd hope not."

"The one *ZKT* the left of that boa*ZKT*," Yukinojo
got out. He could feel his systems crashing by the minute. If Mihoshi
didnít hurry, he would cease to exist.

The instructions enabled her to locate the correct circuit boards and
she began removing them one by one. There was only one left when she took
paused to take one last look at Yukinojoís damaged head. "This is
it, Yukinojo. After I pull out this last circuit, youíll be truly off-line
for the first time since you were created. Iíve heard other AIís compare
this sort of thing to sleep, so donít worry. Iíll turn you back on as
soon as I can, I promise."

Through what higher process remained, Yukinojo managed to say. "If
I go to sleep, will I dream of electric sheep?"

"Donít be silly. No one dreams of electric sheep." Mihoshi
assured him. She gently ran her head along the intact portions of the
head. Her voice was full of emotion. "Go to sleep now. And have pleasant
dreams. Youíll be awake before you know it."

It was the same thing her mother used to tell her when she was a little
girl and was being tucked into bed late at night. It had seemed appropriate
to use now, and after the words had left her mouth, Mihoshi knew she had
been right.

The last circuit board came out easily, and Mihoshi placed it in the
box. It took several seconds for her to properly set the unit up. Once
fully functional, she double-checked it and made certain it was operating
correctly. Satisfied that his neural net was intact, she set the case
in a safe area of the bridge that had little other than cosmetic damage.

"I think heíll be all right," Mihoshi told Tenchi. "The
battery system on that can last up to two months. Weíll be able to get
him a new ship by then."

"What do we do now?" he asked.

Mihoshi considered that. "Well, one of our professors at the Galaxy
Police Survival Training Course, Dr. Lector, said that when youíre stranded
on a planet, always preserve dead bodies in case youíre starving and need
to eat later. He said donít worry about the flavor either, since most
racesí flesh tastes like chicken anyway."

A sweatdrop formed on the back of Tenchiís head. "Ah, even if there
were some dead bodies around, I really donít think we need to resort to
cannibalism. Iím sure thereís plenty of food on the ship and thereís probably
food on this planet too."

"I guess youíre right," Mihoshi admitted. "The next thing
weíre supposed to do is set up an emergency beacon so other starships
can find us."

Tenchi looked at the main control panel where the communications equipment
had been. The emphasis on Ďhadí. "I donít think itís going to work.
It looks like itís busted up pretty badly, and thereís hardly any power
left on the ship."

"Not to worry. Just follow me." Mihoshi grabbed an emergency
light and went through the broken door leading from the bridge, taking
the corridor to the right. Tenchi followed close on her heels. The going
was difficult since the passageway was littered with broken pieces of
debris from the ceiling and walls, leftover gifts from the crash. They
had to pick their way over piles of debris, sometimes very carefully due
to the assortment of sharp objects that protruded from the piles.

As they made their way down the darkened passageway, the yellow beam
dancing across the floor as the light bounced in Mihoshiís hand, Tenchi
wondered what she was up to now. Sometimes it seemed she knew what she
was doing, but other times, like the cannibalism issue, made him wonder
exactly why he was following her lead. The truth was that sometimes being
around her was more stressful than finding himself caught between Ryouko
and Aeka when it was Ďthat time of the monthí for both of them.

Thoughts turned briefly to that pair, and he hoped
they were faring better than he and Mihoshi were, not that that would
be a difficult feat. Ultimately, he wondered if he should have been surprised
that things had gone the way they had. The duo of the princess and the
pirate constantly surprised him óplenty of both good and bad surprisesó
but they had a tendency to operate within certain patterns, making them
at least a little predictable. Not so with Mihoshi. She was more like
the personification of chaos; so tempestuous that even Washuu could not
predict her comings and goings. Trying to anticipate what Mihoshi was
going to do next was like trying to figure out which way a leaf was going
to blow when cast into a tornado. And like the other girls, sometimes
the chaos was a refreshing change, but other times it was like being punched
in the gut by a three hundred pound gorilla. Mihoshi was a living contradiction,
like most of the people that had somehow ended up in his life.

The tone of his response made Mihoshi look at him curiously. "Are
you hearing voices? Sometimes that happens if youíve taken a bump to the
head, and youíve got a really big one right on the top there. Maybe youíve
got a concussion. Let me check." She moved closer, taking a good
look at his eyes. "Ohh. Your pupils were all dilated for a second
there. They say thatís a sign of a concussion."

"They were dilated because we were walking around in the dark with
only your flashlight to see by," Tenchi pointed out as he shielded
his eyes from the glare.

"Oh, right." Mihoshi shone the light back they way they had
been originally heading and continued forward. "If you keep having
auditory hallucinations, let me know. Thereíre some tranquilizers in the
first-aid kit thatíll quiet any voices you might be hearing. Of course,
theyíll also pretty much knock out all of your higher brain functions
too. And make you drool a lot, but at least the voices will stop. And
I can wipe up the drool for you."

"Thanks for the offer. Iíll be sure to let you know," Tenchi
said, promising that even if he heard the Lizard King himself begin whispering
in his ear and explained how to taste the color yellow, he wasnít going
to say a word. Taking heavy medication recommended by Mihoshi was a bad
idea, even under the best of times. And the idea of being nothing more
than a walking drool bucket appealed to him even less.

Eventually, they arrived at Mihoshiís destination; a plain metal door
with a feathered wing emblem in the middle. It took the combined efforts
of both to pry the door open, since there was still no power to the self-opening
doors in that section of the ship either. Tenchi never thought he would
miss the Ďwhooshí sound the doors made and the burst of air that usually
accompanied them opening. It was so much easier to just let the blasted
things open on their own. And since they were supposed to be powered at
all times, the designers had failed to take into account how much effort
it would take to manually open them. It was like trying to force open
something with a rusty lock.

But the door gave under their combined strength, and they saw the interior
of the room. Unlike most of the ship, the room was mostly intact, save
for the large cracks along most of the walls. Still, it had fared better
than the majority of the ship. Mihoshi began grabbing various boxes, kits,
and other odds and ends. The most curious things she grabbed were a set
of identical staves that were about seven feet tall and had a series of
multi-colored wires dangling from several points along their length. When
her arms were full, she began handing things to Tenchi to carry.

"What is this stuff?" Tenchi asked as she plopped a small box
with a red cross on the top.

More boxes were placed on top of the first one he held before Mihoshi
said, "Emergency supplies. I think this is all we can carry this
trip." She fingered her messy outfit. "Thereís some extra clothing
here. Let me get changed into my battle uniform, then weíll take it outside."

It didnít take long for Mihoshi to change (after Tenchi had left the
room, still holding the multitude of boxes) into her orange and black
skin-tight battle uniform. Now that Tenchi thought about it, he wondered
if the male members of the Galaxy Police had to wear outfits that were
asÖ form fitting as Mihoshiís was. It would be sort of sexist if they
didnít, but on the other hand, if some of the policemen he knew had to
wear outfits like that, the sight really wouldnít be pretty.

It was only once he was outside that Tenchi was fully able to appreciate
the abuse the ship had undergone. The original red coloring of the vehicle
was now scorched black. It appeared the engines had been ripped off the
vessel, one of them being deposited in the mile long furrow the ship had
left when it had made its crash landing. There were holes and rents along
the entire length of the ship. A two-meter wide groove rode the length
of the ship from bow to stern, most likely from that final shot that had
sent the ship on its death-plunge. Armor was peeled back, warped, or melted
outright from both near misses of laser fire and from their speedy entry
into the planetís atmosphere. It was a miracle they had walked away from
their landing at all.

Tenchi took a good look at the planet they had landed on. The area was
verdant with plant life. The majority of it was composed of grasses and
shrubs, with only a handful of slender trees, or what passed for trees
on the planet, decorating the landscape. As far as emergency landing strips
went, Mihoshi had made a good choice. The land was level for kilometers
around and there were no large obstructions that would have caused additional
damage to the ship, not that the amount of damage wasnít appalling to
begin with.

Calling the plant life greenery would have been inappropriate. There
were a handful of bright reds and exotic purples scattered here and there,
but by far the majority of the foliage was a dull yellow that was identical
to the coloring of the old wooden pencils Tenchi used when he was in elementary
school. The grasses around the ship and in the distance appeared high,
much of it coming up to Tenchiís waist and reminding him of pictures he
had seen of the African savanna. Wind made waves across the ocean of tall
grass, flowing from one direction and continuing unabated until the ripples
were out of sight. Tenchi doubted there was any place on Earth, untouched
by man, that could have appeared so beautiful. For a moment, a tear threatened
to form in his eye.

In the distance there was a loud squawk, and a flock of birds shot out
lightning quick from the high grass. They took off, soaring high in the
sky and opposite the direction of the crashed ship. That seemed to answer
any questions about there being animal life on the planet. Tenchi tried
listening for other sounds that might have come from animals, but aside
from the ever-fainter squawks, there was nothing. All seemed peaceful
for the moment, perhaps as some form of balance due to the loud noise
the spaceship had made when it crash-landed.

Mihoshi had only given the land a cursory look before she set her gear
down and began planting the long poles into the ground. She had a semi-circle
of them done before Tenchi asked what she was doing.

"This is a portable communications array. Itís very powerful and
can reach out of the system. Iím going to set it up to transmit a continuous
emergency signal with who we are and our coordinates. That way someone
can get here quickly, I hope, and rescue us."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Tenchi asked.

"Sure. Go into that red tool box and pull out a pair of ruxeterrs."

"Ah, okay." Tenchi began looking through the box Mihoshi had
indicated. He wasnít sure what a pair of ruxeterrs looked like, but he
was a man, and if it was a tool, he could identify it. It was a basic
instinct with his gender.

Locating the pair of ruxeterrs proved to be a more difficult task than
he had anticipated. There were some tools in the box that he was easily
able to identify: Pliers, ratchet set, duct tape (that was a universal
constant, according to Washuu), bolts, cranks. Other items werenít so
easy to identify. There was a wide assortment of various items inside,
slender and wide, long and short, one piece and complex with moving parts.
His instincts seemed to be failing him as he randomly pulled out a device
that had two long cubes attached together by a long wire between them.

Tenchi held out the item for Mihoshi to see. "Is this it?"

Mihoshi let out a gasp and closed the distance between her and Tenchi
in a couple of strides. She grabbed one of the cubes and ripped the object
out of his hands. The other cube and length of wire sailed over her shoulder.
"Tenchi! Thatís a hand-held laser wire. Itís very dangerous and not
a toy. If you arenít careful, you could end up slicing off your hand or
something more important. Youíve got to take care of dangerous items like
this or theyíll cause a lot of trouble."

At first, Mihoshi wasnít sure why Tenchi chose to say nothing, but rather
pointed over her shoulder instead. It took a moment to realize that he
wanted her to look behind. Perhaps it was something dangerous that only
she, as a representative of the Galaxy Police, could handle. She turned
and saw nothing out of the ordinary. There were no spaceships, criminals,
or wild animals. It was just the tools she had already been using, the
cottontail on her uniform, and the rods she had sunk in the ground, except
for the one that had been cut in half and was now lying on the ground.

"Oops," Mihoshi said as she realized what she had done. She
handed the laser wire back to Tenchi. "Itís a good thing they pack
spare rods."

The rest of the work went more quickly as Tenchi helped Mihoshi set up
the portable array and program it to send off a continuous SOS signal.
Once that was accomplished, they did an inventory of their other supplies.
They had about two weeks of emergency rations, a bio-analyzer to tell
what vegetation and water was safe to eat, a survival kit, a first aid
kit, and an assortment of smaller odds and ends that might be needed later.
About the only thing they didnít have were any additional weapons, and
that was because the wall to Mihoshiís armory had been the part of the
ship that had taken the last hit from the energy blast. Most of the weapons
had gone flying out into deep space, and those that were locked down tighter
had been crushed when the ship had crashed. It didnít matter that much.
Mihoshi still had her sidearm and Tenchi still had the Master Key with
him. Between those two items, they felt they had little to worry about
in the form of dangerous animals.

Both suns were still high in the sky when Mihoshi dragged out a vehicle
from the remains of her docking bay. Tenchi was surprised to see that
it had the outward appearance of a motorcycle, aside from the fact it
had no tires, but instead two flat squares where they tires should have
been.

"What is that?"

"An Oxerat 200 Hoverbike," Mihoshi explained. "Generally
we use them for short range reconnaissance work. They move very quietly
and can seat two." She patted the long seat a few times, indicating
where the passenger would sit behind the pilot. "It even has an antigrav
sled that can be hooked up to the back when you need to carry extra mass.
Theyíre really quite useful. Most patrol ships have at least one with
them nowadays."

"Why did you bother to get it out, though?" Tenchi asked as
Mihoshi began going over the hoverbike. He was pretty sure he didnít like
the direction the conversation was heading.

The hoverbike hummed gently as Mihoshi began tweaking the engine. "I
thought weíd take a look around and get the lay of the land. That way
weíll know where we are and what resources are on hand, in case weíre
here for a while."

Actually, that made a great deal of sense. Tenchi nodded in approval.

Mihoshi finished hooking up the antigrav sled, which consisted of two
long rods that could set up an antigravity field between the two of them,
to the back of the bike. Once finished, she said, "Letís get going."
She hopped on the bike and indicated that Tenchi should sit behind her.

"Weíre going now?" That seemed a bit abrupt. They had just
crashed several hours earlier.

"Even if thereís a rescue ship one system away, itíll still take
them at least a day or more to get here. We have plenty of time."
Mihoshi twisted the handlebar and the engine began to rev higher and higher.

The resemblance to a more mundane motorcycle again crossed Tenchiís mind.
"Well. I guess so." The reluctance in his voice matched his
motions as he slowly got on behind Mihoshi. There didnít seem to be any
handholds on the sides of the hoverbike, which meant he was going to have
to grab onto something else if he wanted to maintain his balance while
they were flying. Maybe he wouldnít have to hold on too tightly. Surely
Mihoshi would go slowly, since she had a passenger.

"Hold on tight," she said as she stared at the control panel
in front of her. How did operating the bike go? There was a switch she
had to flip, but which one was it? She randomly chose the one in the middle.
She was rewarded with the bike lifting several meters off the ground.

"Now for a little speed," she said to Tenchi from over her
shoulder as she gave a quick twist to the speed dial.

Twin screams of terror rang through the air as the hovercyle went from
zero to two hundred kilometers per hour in less than five seconds.

The crew of the Rack NíRuin continued going over the remains of the vessel.
Yoost and Onita were looking for additional weapons amidst the ruins of
the ship. Angstrom was busy trying to put together a working communication
unit. Joffry was laid out on the bridge in as comfortable a position as
he could, given the condition of the ship and his shattered legs. Funuyaki
and Ariana were scouting the area surrounding the ship. Autolycus had
been assigned to try to scrounge some food from the debris, and Malgaunt
and Stargrave randomly sifted through piles of wreckage trying to find
anything of use and having little success.

Fera was off to the side of the ship on her own. The first thing she
had done was to try to locate the remains of her room. Upon finding it,
she immediately began digging through the mess until she managed to pull
three large metal cases out. Once they were free, she removed all the
contents, spread them out in an open area next to the ship, and began
putting them together using some tools that had been in the boxes. When
Stargrave saw what she was building, he gave her permission to continue
working on it while the others carried on with their assigned tasks.

Malgaunt saw that Stargrave was beginning to pace again instead of searching
for useful items. He could have asked what was troubling the criminal,
but there was no point to it. Malgaunt already knew the answer as sure
as he was going to take another breath. It was that damned plant. All
Stargrave could do was fret about it since it wasnít on hand, and he would
probably continue to do so until he either had it or Malgaunt had him
clubbed into unconsciousness and chained to a rock. The second alternative
was looking more appealing by the moment as Malgauntís own temper was
stretched thin.

It was unusual for Stargrave to worry so. The man was usually as relaxed
and in control as Malgaunt was, though on the outside Stargrave appeared
the more easygoing of the pair. That was one of the things that had impressed
Malgaunt into agreeing to the partnership between the two of them, Stargraveís
ability to remain calm in a situation. Well, that and the resources he
had as the head of a vast criminal organization.

But now he was losing control, and getting worse, not better, in spite
of Malgauntís continued reassurances. The marshal couldnít understand
the reason why, since they both shared the same risks if things fell through.
Maybe Stargrave was simply taking things too personally. If there had
been any alcohol that had survived the crash, Malgaunt would have given
it to his friend in a second. Instead, he was forced to reassure him again
that they could set out to recover the Shihana when the transmitter was
working again.

Malgaunt finally broke the silence. "Itíll be over soon. Weíll have
the Shihana in hand in a couple of days at the latest."

Stargrave shook his head. "Sooner than that, but every second seems
like an eternity to me."

"A watched Glarph never soils," Malgaunt said, invoking the
power of the ancient proverb.

"I hate that saying." Stargrave looked at his locator and checked
on the position of the Shihana again.

Malgaunt bent down and lifted a large piece of metal. There was the glint
of something shiny underneath. "Bring that light under here. I think
Iíve found an arc welder." He nodded towards something underneath
the metal. The directed light showed that it was what Malgaunt had thought.
"Go down and get it while I keep this up in the air."

That was just what he needed. Something to keep Stargrave busy and hopefully
more pleasant. Being stranded on the planet with only a handful of people,
some of whom had a natural animosity, like ex-police officers and criminals,
meant nerves would wear thin quickly. Usually it took at least several
days for that sort of thing to happen, but in Stargraveís current mental
state, his irritation would only transfer to his crew and then the situation
would be very explosive. The sooner they got their hands on the Shihana,
the better.

After Stargrave retrieved the arc welder, they headed back to their temporary
base of operations: the bridge. It was the most intact portion of the
vessel left. From there they would build the transmitter and organize
their search for the recovery of the Shihana. Then everything would settle
down, and the group would relax until they were lifted off planet by one
of their allies.

Ariana returned to the ship and located them on their way back. Once
there, she stood next to Stargrave and began informing him of what she
had found. Malgaunt felt irritated at being left out. She was directing
all of her comments towards Stargrave and pretended Malgaunt wasnít even
there. He hoped Funuyaki had found something, so he could rub it in Arianaís
face later.

They were more than halfway back to the bridge when they came across
Onita and Yoost, who were looking through piles of debris in the hopes
of finding some sort of weapon. At present, all they had were the sidearms
each person had been wearing at the time of the crash. There was no telling
what sort of hostile animals were on the planet, and it was always better
to have a big gun and not use it instead of needing a big gun and not
having it.

"Status?" Malgaunt asked Onita.

"Three laser pistols and a couple of vibro-knives. Nothing but crap,"
Onita grunted as he stopped looking and sat down to take a rest.

"Iíve found something." Yoost was about fifteen feet away from
the others, at the far side of the room, when he pulled out a long black
cylinder with a trigger and scope on the top. "I thought Bereneger
kept some funky weapon in his room."

"Hey! Be careful with that," Onita warned. "Thatís a Retree
Plasma cannon. Itís got some major firepower, but itís a real delicate
instrument."

Yoost laughed contemptuously at Onita. "You GP might be tight asses
about procedures, but us here at the Rack NíRuin play things a little
faster and looser. Iíll find out if it works." He aimed the plasma
cannon at the wall that was next to the outside of the craft.

"Donít do it." Onita got up and took a half step towards him.
"It might—"

The rest was cut off as Yoost pulled the trigger and the weapon blew
up. The others ducked (save Ariana who threw herself in front of Stargrave)
and shielded their eyes from the brightness of the small, yet powerful
explosion. Onita was on his feet first despite being closest to the blast.

He looked over Yoostís fallen form. "It might do that to you,"
he finished

Ariana moved to his side and took a closer look at Yoost. She turned
back to Stargrave. "Heís still breathing, but not much."

"Sloppy fool," Stargrave muttered under his breath. Louder,
he said, "Can we?" He let the question end there. Ariana would
know what he meant.

"Not with the shape weíre in. Probably not even if the ship was
working like normal."

"Take care of it then," Stargrave ordered.

Everyone watched as Ariana drew her pistol and put Yoost out of his misery.
The smell of charred flesh was overwhelming, so without a backward glance
the four people left the chamber and headed for the bridge once more.

The quartet walked a little ways before Malgaunt said, "Well, if
there was any one person we could have spared, it was Yoost. There isnít
much use for a hacker out here now."

Stargrave didnít bother to look at him. "He was one of mine, not
yours. So shut up!"

Ariana sneered while Onita moved protectively towards Malgaunt. There
was no need for it; Stargrave said nothing else, and the group continued
onward.

Upon arriving at the bridge, they saw that Angstrom had indeed been busy.
Wires and batteries were strewn about the floor, concentrated mostly around
the communications console. Various systems had been gutted to use for
parts in boosting the signal of the reserve transmitter, and the effect
made the bridge look even more cluttered than before. However, the news
was good.

"I should have it up and running in a couple of hours, no later,"
Angstrom assured him as Malgaunt offered the arc welder he was carrying.
Angstrom nodded in gratitude. The pocket laser he had been using was sufficient
for the job, but it took far longer to use to get the same results the
larger instrument would offer.

"Once itís up and running, I want you to send a signal on this frequency."
Stargrave ran off a set of numbers.

"Itís the Yagdagron military channel. There should be some of their
ships listening for it, in case Yolleth wanted to contact them. Although
I doubt if theyíll be nearby."

"That might mean a long wait." Everyone turned in surprise
to see Autolycus standing slightly behind the captain. No one had realized
he had returned to the bridge.

"We canít use any of our standard smuggler frequencies because they
might be monitored. And itís not like we want a private vessel coming
since weíll be carrying the Shihana with us." Stargrave shook his
head. "No. Itís too risky. We canít chance someone finding us here
with Shihana. Weíll contact the Yagdagron and complete the mission. Once
it is in their hands, then we can rest easy."

Autolycus began to shake his head when Fera entered through the hole
of the bridge. "The bikeís complete." She directed her comment
to Stargrave.

"Excellent. We canó"

"What bike?" Malgaunt asked, interrupting Stargraveís orders.

Stargrave took a deep breath, then began his explanations. "Fera
had made a recent purchase of a kit bikeó"

"You know itís illegal to own one of those." It was Onita who
had interrupted Stargrave this time.

"Are you going to arrest me?" Fera asked.

"Ah, no," Onita said hesitantly, unsure of what she meant by
that.

"Then shut up!" Fera snarled.

Stargrave turned to Ariana and said in a voice loud enough for everyone
to hear, "Shoot the next person that interrupts me." Ariana
drew her pistol, keeping it at a ready position at her side.

Now once again in command of the situation, Saíbre Stargrave began for
the fourth time, "Due to the fact it was a recent purchase, it was
still in its component parts in its cases. Since the cases were made of
osmium steel, and Feraís quarters were still in the part of the ship after
it crashed, it was intact. Sheís been building it since she dug the cases
out of the wreckage. I deemed it more important than any salvaging she
could have done. Now that itís complete, and in working order, I intend
to go out with her and retrieve the Shihana."

"Not if you want it brought back, youíre not," Fera said, her
voice not inviting a discussion of the matter as she crossed her arms
and looked expectantly at her captain.

"Whatís that supposed to mean?" Stargrave asked. Feraís insolence
affected his stressed nerves far more than it had before.

Stating it as a matter of fact, Fera said, "Even with the drag rig
on, thereís no way I can accommodate a passenger as well as the Shihana.
So if you go with me, it stays right where it is."

Stargrave considered that. "I suppose I can fly it if I had to."
It had been at least five years since he had last driven a hoverbike,
and he hadnít been very good at it even then, but he thought he could
manage.

"Not my bike, you donít," Feraís fur bristled and she bared
her fangs in Stargraveís direction.

Ariana leveled her pistol at Fera. "Heís your captain. Youíll damn
well do what he says, even if it means learning to crap in a litter box
like the rest of your kind."

Feraís muscles tensed at the derogatory insult leveled at her and her
race. Despite a superficial resemblance, Katasanís were not related to
housecats and took offense to anyone that implied it. She prepared to
rush forward and rip out Arianaís throat, unmindful of the weapon leveled
at her.

A clapping near the hole on the bridge caught everyoneís attention. Fera
switched targets to the newcomer, while Arianaís pistol swiveled in that
direction.

"If you shoot her, can I have the bike?" Funuyaki asked as
she leaned lackadaisically against the torn wood and metal of the hole.

"Enough!" Malgaunt said. His lieutenantís distraction had given
him enough time to assess the situation and take control of it himself.
Stargrave was obviously more stressed out than the marshal had assumed,
if he had this little control over his subordinates. He needed to take
a page from Malgauntís own book. Onita and Funuyaki were still obedient
to his every command, in spite of the stress of the situation, like true
subordinates were supposed to be.

The remaining members of the crew of the Rack NíRuin looked suspiciously
at Malgaunt, but said nothing. Even Stargrave remained silent. That was
to whom Malgaunt directed his attention towards.

"Feraís the one that should go and retrieve the Shihana. The bikeís
the fastest way to get it here, and sheís the ideal one for the job. If
that bike of hers has a sensitivity web that highly attuned, none but
the most skilled of riders could probably keep from wrecking it, and somehow
I doubt if youíve been hot-dogging it lately." Malgaunt saw the acceptance
start to creep up on Stargraveís face. A little more should do it and
then victory would be Malgauntís. "Sheís the best flyer among us,
and we really need you here to keep giving orders to the others."
He hoped Stargrave had a clear enough head to pick up on the all too accurate
implication: ĎYour crew wonít take orders from me.í

After another moment of consideration, Stargrave nodded his head. "Youíre
correct. Fera should fly out alone and retrieve the prize. Now give her
your locator."

Malgauntís head jerked slightly. "Why mine?"

"Because she needs it to locate the Shihana, and I want to keep
mine." And to show the others that I still hold the reigns of command,
was the added implication to that order. Malgaunt picked up on the inference
and went with it. If Stargrave felt the urge to save face, it meant he
was still thinking with a clear mind.

He handed his locator to Fera, who turned on her heel the moment it touched
her hand and exited the vessel.

Almost as soon as Fera left, Malgaunt noticed Stargrave become depressed
at having his plans thwarted. As Malgaunt expected, a dark look overcame
Stargraveís features as well. He was brooding. Malgaunt had spent enough
time with the pirate captain to know that the dark mood would start coloring
everything he did. Steps would have to be taken to try to shake, or at
least distract, Stargrave out of his mood. Malgaunt made small talk with
Funuyaki and Onita until he thought of something that might work.

The Marshal made his way over with his subordinates in tow. "That
Ariana seems to be very competent, even for your crew." He pointed
over to where the person in question was separating the items they had
salvaged into different groups depending of their use.

Malgauntís plan worked as Stargrave brightened a little. He enjoyed bragging
about his crew, or at least the more useful members of it. "Ah, Ariana.
Yes. She was quite the find. Would you like to hear how I came across
her and she came under my command?"

Upon hearing her name, Ariana made her way over to the small group. She
was interested in hearing how her captain would tell the tale. It gave
her a certain amount of pride that Stargrave felt like bragging about
her, and was interested in hearing how he would tell the story.

Stargrave gave his first mate a tight smile and began. "My dear,
sweet, faithful Ariana was won by me in a card game."

"Oh?" Malgaunt said. Onita and Funuyaki wore puzzled expressions.

"Ariana is from Andarea, as you might have been able to tell by
her slight accent. Itís a small out-of-the-way planet that has several
treaties with the Jurai, though is not actually a part of it. Andareaís
world government is a male-dominated monarchic system. Women are treated
as little more than property. Valuable property, but property all the
same. And the most valuable of all are the highborn ladies, such as Ariana
here."

"How come?" Onita asked.

Stargrave bit off the sharp reply on his tongue. He hated being interrupted,
but he wanted to finish his tale more than wasting time with the reprimand.
"Because they are taught the combat arts almost from the moment they
can walk. They receive extensive training in most personal arms and hand-to-hand
fighting. You see, among the males of the nobility, certain forms of assassination
are viewed as an acceptable means of advancement. Not bombs or poisons,
mind you, but rather up-close and personal methods, such as blades, pistols,
and even bare hands. Since paying for standard bodyguards around the clock
costs a small fortune, itís simply more economical for a nobleman to pay
a one-time bride price for a well-trained noblewoman and marry her. That
way they stay at the side of their man at all times. Quite practical,
when you stop and think about it. And since noblemen are allowed to have
multiple wives, they can have twenty-four hour protection, as well as
the fringe benefits that apply when one is married to a beautiful bodyguard."
Stargrave gave a smile at the joke. He failed to notice Arianaís own downcast
look in his direction.

"As for Ariana herself, she was bought and married to a rather wealthy
lord named Bethlamu who had this gambling problem. Namely he didnít know
when to quit when his luck went bad. I was involved in such a game, winning
quite soundly, and legitimately I might add, when Bethlamu ran out of
funds. Instead of walking away, he offered to put up Ariana as collateral.
I could see the pompous snob was unworthy of her protection at a glance.
It was my duty to rescue her. I accepted and won her, of course. The poor
fool didnít know what to do without her. He had other wives, of course,
but none as talented as Ariana. He even offered to buy her back later
when he got more funds, as though there was enough money in all of his
coffers to buy someone like her back."

"So sheís your slave?" Funuyaki asked, becoming even more disgusted
with the man.

"Hardly," Stargrave scoffed. "I freed her the moment I
won her, then offered her a job working for me. The poor dear didnít know
what to do at first; she did have a lifetime of conditioning which made
her think of herself as nothing more than property to be bartered with
by other men, but sheís broken out of that frame of mind since. Sheís
her own woman now, free to come and go as she pleases."

"Iíd never leave you," Ariana insisted.

"Ah, but women are fickle," Stargrave said whimsically. "You
say that now, but will you feel the same a year from now?"

"Iíd stay with you forever," she said with total conviction.

Funuyaki rolled her eyes. It really was quite clever maneuvering on Stargraveís
part. In freeing her, he bound her to his will more tightly than he could
have hoped if she had remained his property. After all, once permanently
outside Andarea, Ariana would have seen what it meant for women to be
free and might have developed ideas of her own concerning her independence.
But in freeing her first, Stargrave had made her feel indebted to him;
at least she did once she understood the concept of freedom outside her
own world. No doubt he had done other things as well to bind her to him.
And Ariana was blind to it all. Truly the man knew how to manipulate people
like a master.

Had Funuyaki been able to read Arianaís thoughts, she would have learned
that she was only half right. It was true that had been Stargraveís plan,
and Ariana had originally served him out of a feeling of debt, but as
time went on, Ariana genuinely fell in love with the man. It went far
deeper than merely freeing her from her bondage. It went far deeper than
him treating her like a person instead of like property. It was the man
himself whom she loved. He was truly an inspiration. Confident in his
abilities. Ruthless in his ambitions. Dominating in his personality. Yet
there was also a definite code of honor within him; it was just something
few could make out among the various actions he did. He was a hundred
times the man Bethlamu was, and she would sooner cut her former husbandís
throat than allow herself to be enslaved to him for even a second ever
again.

Stargrave was a man that was actually worthy of her love, and she was
worthy of his. He showed it in the manner he behaved around her. When
they were alone, he was open in ways that he never was with others. She
knew more about him than anyone else. While it was true that she did not
know the exact details of his past, it was something from there that drove
him to become the man he was today. She was the only one that came close
to understanding him. Even if he did not love her now, there would come
a day when he would look upon her in a new light and at long last love
her in return. She knew it in her heart. And until that day, she would
willingly and faithfully serve at his side as long as she drew breath
in her body.

Stargraveís momentary surge of pride passed and something of a dark mood
settled over him again, though its hold was not as strong as before. He
followed Ariana back to the piles of salvaged items and began sorting
through them with her. Malgaunt and the others separated and began helping
reclaim what they could from the ship once again.

Feraís fur bristled with anticipation as she mounted her bike. At last
she was going to get a chance to fly fast and be alive for the first time
since she had landed on the miserable mudball. True, it was a testament
to her skills that anyone could even walk away from the site of the crash,
and it would add to her already impressive list of deeds when she reached
final judgment, but already she found her soul wanting more. It wasnít
just her skills she wanted to show off; it was competition she desired.
All Katasans knew that tests of skills against the forces of nature, like
Hellís Gate, were ultimately victories only for oneís personal spirit.
One could not defeat the forces of nature; one could only survive them.

However, when challenging other living beings, that was different. Then
it was solely a matter of skill versus skill, and only the best, or the
luckiest, survived. The more worthy the opponent, the more honor one gained
in their defeat. And the more opponents that were defeated, the higher
one was elevated into paradise when the final tally was added up and judgment
was rendered.

There had not been many that had tested Fera of late. None that were
what she considered worthy, in any case. There had been that runner that
had tried to stupidly attack the Rack NíRuin a couple of weeks ago (the
Gods only knew why he didnít recognize the ship on sight) and had made
a pretty good run for it. It had taken Fera almost a whole two and a half
minutes to bring him into line so the gunners could take him out. And
then there was that Gippetten ship they nailed last week. Those speedy
little things were usually good prey, and their vehicles packed a nasty
sting for something so small. It had lasted almost three minutes before
being shredded by the twin threats of her piloting and the Rack NíRuinís
guns.

There had been many others before those two ótoo many to countó but now
there was one that had caught Feraís attention like no other. Not even
the idea of flying against any more of her fellow Katasans excited her
that much. It was all about the one who had moved so fluidly, that flight
was one of her higher instincts. The one who had so easily defied the
odds that Fera felt intoxicated at the very idea of seeing her in action
again. And unlike the other members of the crew, she felt confident that
somehow, in spite of the odds, Mihoshi had survived. And if she had survived,
Fera would find her. Then the two of them would engage in the duel that
destiny decreed they should have. And in the end, one of them would find
out what paradise was really all about.

"Would you please slow down?!" Tenchi shouted from his position
from behind Mihoshi. Almost from the instant they had lifted off the ground,
Mihoshi had chosen to fly at a breakneck speed that had given probably
given Tenchi a bad case of whiplash, if the pain from his neck was any
indication of it.

The land was a blur below them, the wide fields becoming a sea of yellow,
and then of blue and green as Tenchi assumed the grass had changed color.
Their speed increased as Tenchi held onto Mihoshi even tighter than before,
praying she didnít turn too quickly and send him flying off the bike.
He was in such a panic that he barely realized that his grip had shifted
from her waist to somewhere higher and softer instead. But the new hold
did afford him a better grasp upon the driver, so perhaps he could be
forgiven.

Fear intensified as he wondered what was going to happen, as the sea
of blue and green grass changed to a drier and rockier terrain. Even at
the speed they were going at, Tenchi could tell the difference in the
land. He hoped Mihoshi could figure out some way to slow down, or else
they were surely doomed.

Mihoshi heard Tenchiís pleas and matched them cry for cry with tears
of her own. It had been so long since she had used the hoverbike that
she now was uncertain of how to stop it. There were three controls she
could use. One would stop the bike. One would activate the afterburner
and quadruple the two hundred kilometer speed they were currently at.
And the other one would do something that Mihoshi wasnít sure of.

Her mind raced with the possibilities, then eventually realized that
since she didnít have the faintest clue as to which button was which,
it didnít really matter which one was pushed. So Mihoshi opted for the
one in the center.

Windshield wiper fluid sprayed out across the windshield. Now she remembered
what the third control did. She was about to try switch number two, when
she realized she had forgotten to warn Tenchi of what was about to happen.
"Hold on tight!" she cried out over the wind.

Tenchi heard and tightened his grip.

As Tenchi tightened his grip, Mihoshi gasped delightedly and briefly
forgot what she had planned on doing. Actually, she was pretty damn happy
with the way things had suddenly turned out, and their high speed didnít
seem to matter so much any longer.

Tenchi buried his face in her back, trying to keep the wind out of his
eyes, and also to keep from looking down as the land had seemed to be
getting progressively closer to the bottom of their hoverbike, and they
had not been that high to begin with. "Nothingís happening!"
he shouted.

"I wouldnít say that," Mihoshi said as the pleasant feelings
continued to override her higher functions.

"What was that?!" Tenchi shouted over the roar of the wind.

"Hold tighter!" Mihoshi answered loudly enough to be heard
this time.

Tenchi was going to do so anyway as he dared to look down once and saw
that the land below was coming uncomfortably close now.

Again Mihoshi moaned. It was almost as pleasant as the time she had bathed
baby Taro and he had mistaken her for his mother. As she lost herself
to the sensation, her hand fell downward, near where she was straddling
the bike, and hit a lever located right where the base of the seat met
the steering column. The lever turned out to be the emergency brake.

The hoverbike skidded on air to a stop, slowing down enough so that when
both Mihoshi and Tenchi slammed into the plexi-plastic windshield on the
bike, they survived the impact. They did have a bit of difficulty peeling
their faces off the plexi-plastic, and were a bit shaken up by the impact,
but were otherwise fine.

Mihoshi shook her head clear. She had forgotten all about the emergency
brake. That made things a bit easier, since she remembered which switch
would land the bike. She located the right one and flipped it all the
way to its lowest position.

And the bike plummeted like a rock, slamming hard into the ground ten
feet below.

"Oww." Mihoshi wondered if her tailbone was still there. Probably,
since it hurt so much. "I forgot. Youíre supposed to turn the switch
slowly, stopping at each notch, rather than turning off the landing control
all at once. If you donít you kind of—"

"—Crash," Tenchi finished for her as he shook his head a bit
to clear it. The way his teeth had slammed together when they had hit,
he was sure a couple of them had been knocked out. He was about to reproach
Mihoshi about being more careful when he realized where his hands had
been located both before the abrupt slowdown and after.

"Gah!" he removed his hands as quickly as he could. "Iím
sorry. I didnít mean to grab you there."

A small blush formed on Mihoshiís cheeks. Mihoshi didnít mind it. Tenchi
minded it. Aeka and Ryouko would have minded it violently, but Mihoshi
didnít mind it at all. She looked over her shoulder at Tenchi and said,
"No need for apologies. It was sort of, ahh…" she trailed
off, embarrassment at the slightly sexual situation overriding her bodyís
healthy, natural, normal impulse to jump Tenchi then and there.

Yes, while on the bike. Mihoshiís sense of balance could be quite good
when it had to be.

"It didnít bother me at all," she finally managed to get out.

Tenchiís blush was four times that of Mihoshiís. As the full repercussions
of what he had done set in, he found it hard to look her in the eye. When
he at last worked up the courage, he said, "I promise not to do it
again."

Mihoshi went from looking slightly embarrassed to crestfallen.

[Youíre a bloody little queer, arenít you?]

"Shut—" Tenchi quit before Mihoshi accused him of talking
to himself again.

[You grab a womanís tits and, instead of enjoying the cheap cop, you
apologize for it. Never mind the fact that itís obvious you werenít trying
to hit on her, and that you know damn well sheís attracted to you and
probably didnít even mind it. Hell, youíve hurt her feelings by saying
youíd never touch her breasts again. Way to go, Mr. Sensitivity. Why donít
we try to find out why youíre such a putz, shall we?]

Tenchi repressed the urge to shout the voice down.

[HA! I knew it. Here we are, latent bi-sexual tendencies stored away
really deep in the subconscious. Darn near tripped over the things, theyíre
hidden so well. I bet you thought Kagato was a real cutie.]

"Iím not gay!" Tenchi shouted.

"I didnít say you are," Mihoshi said in surprise at the uncalled
for protestation. "I didnít think it either. I just assumed you were
being a gentleman and maybe, maybe you werenít really interested in me."
She blurted out the last part and ended it with a sigh.

The hackles rose on the back of Tenchiís neck and he felt put under the
spotlight. With that one statement from Mihoshi, he now had one foot in
a trap that would close on him and chew it off if he said the wrong thing.

[Just tell her youíre gay and be done with it.]

A low growl rose from his throat. The anger made him know what to do.
He grabbed both of Mihoshiís hands and held them in a soft, gentle, grasp.
"Itís not that I donít like you. Itís just that Iím not the sort
of guy that goes around grabbing womenís chests and feels comfortable
about it. Thatís the only reason Iím apologizing so vehemently."

The Tenchi Solution: (def.) Being evasive and dodging tough questions
when it came to women. Employed at every turn and at all costs when serious
female situations arose.

It was a technique Tenchi Masaki had developed like a pro, his mastery
the equivalent of a man four times his age and experience. It was a skill
that would serve him well once he was married. It also served to get him
out of his current predicament by working wonders on Mihoshi. She took
a non-outright agreement as a sign that he might actually be interested
in her and cheered up considerably.

"Letís stretch our legs." Mihoshi rose and did so. She jogged
in place for a few seconds, then bent down and touched her toes while
her back was to Tenchi. When he realized what a view he was being presented
with, he looked away, then thought better of it and forced himself to
look straight at her rear end. He examined it very carefully, close enough
to confirm that that part of Mihoshiís body was indeed both very firm
and very symmetrical. At the first signs of a reaction from certain parts
of his anatomy, he turned away and mumbled under his breath, "See.
A perfectly normal reaction to staring at an attractive girl that way."

[Having your nose bleed is NOT a perfectly normal reaction, you twit!]

"Why you—"

[On the other hand, you admitted she was attractive without even trying,
so maybe thereís hope for you yet.]

"Of course there is," Tenchi said.

"Of course there is what?" Mihoshi asked.

"Ah," Tenchi was beginning to consider asking Mihoshi for some
of the medication she had talked about earlier, when he noticed a large
pile of upturned earth in the middle of a large field of grass on the
side of the hill a considerable distance away. There was something odd
about it, even at that range. "What do you make of that?"

Mihoshi looked in the direction Tenchi was pointing. "Iím not sure.
I think it might be an impact crater. Letís take a look."

"On the bike?" Tenchi asked with a slight tremor of fear in
his voice.

"Donít worry. I remember how to fly it now. Weíll be safe."
She hopped onto the bike.

Reluctantly, Tenchi followed. He made certain to grasp only her stomach
this time, although he did adjust his grip a bit high so that his arms
were wrapped around right under the lower curve of Mihoshiís breasts.
That would show the voice in his head. If Mihoshi minded, she gave no
indication of it as she turned the hoverbike back on and took off once
again, under better control this time.

They didnít have to journey long, even at the decreased speed Mihoshi
was traveling at. Tenchiís original estimation on the distance from the
hill the crater had been on was off by a lot. Without an accurate point
of reference between where they had been and the hill, he had been off
by about thirty kilometers. It took several minutes for them to draw near
enough that Tenchi could see that Mihoshiís guess had been correct; it
did appear to be an impact crater. The earth around it had been kicked
up in wide circle about a hundred meters wide, showing that the ground
beneath was much darker than the brownish topsoil in the surface. The
mounds of earth were strewn loosely about, showing that the impact had
been recent, just as Tenchi had suspected. In the center of the carnage,
both of them could clearly see the object that had caused the crater so
recently.

"That isnít from your ship, is it?" Tenchi asked.

"Nope." Mihoshi stared at the object as well, studying it intently.

It was a simple object; a large, intact, gunmetal gray metal sphere that
was about two and a half meters in diameter. The outer coating lacked
the scorch marks that one associated with orbital entry, despite the fact
that was obviously how it had arrived there. The surface was somewhat
plain, covered only with a series of tiny one-inch protrusions of metal
identical to that of the sphere, and a single red oval near the top. A
simple object, at least from the outside.

But then, sometimes the most dangerous things came in the simplest of
packages.